Picture Books
by Shiloh Taemi
Summary: Forced on a two week vacation, Kakashi and Sakura are beyond bored. Kakashi offers to lend her a book to help pass the time, a reluctant Sakura decides to see what else his library consists of, and they are both surprised by what they find.


This is the last short for the Tumblr Kakasaku week, the prompt was Vacation. I had a blast writing these, They challenged me and that is exactly what I wanted out of this. There will be more shorts, I'm sure, but not everyday as the last six were. Thanks for all the reviews. I hope you enjoy this one as well. I_ do not own Naruto I just like fangirling in their world._

* * *

The stars winked above them, Sakura counted the constellations she knew, and then traced them with a finger in the air. When she was finished she let out a heavy sigh. Her and Kakashi had been ordered to take time off, the end of the war had meant little to both of them, Kakashi having buried himself in search and rescue missions and Sakura spending nearly eighteen hour days at the hospital until Tsunade had forced them off the active duty roster for two weeks. _Go rest, take a vacation, I don't want to see either of your faces. _ It had been two days and they found each other at the top of the Hokage monument in the afternoon. Kakashi had his book and Sakura attempted to try out Shikamaru's favorite pass time of cloud gazing, until the sun went down and it turned into star gazing. Kakashi joined her when it grew too dark to read. Five hours of silence between them save for the occasional flipping of a page.

"I'm so bored." She whined finally. Kakashi grunted beside her. And she sat up to look at him. "What are we even supposed to do?" Kakashi sighed.

"Well, I read. I could lend you a book?" Kakashi offered, his a hand rubbing the back of his neck.

"Ew, no thank you, not your books. I'm not about to read porn." She scoffed at him.

"I wasn't offering you my Icha Icha, and Sakura you should know better than to judge what you don't know. The stories are actually very compelling. If you buy me dinner I'll let you take a look at my library." His eyes crinkled at her. Sakura gave an exasperated sigh but agreed, at least it was something to do.

They arrived at his apartment with their take out and sat down to eat. Sakura was surprised how nice it was to just spend time with her former teacher. No strategizing, no hidden tests or expectations, he was quiet but not unpleasant to spend time with. The quiet between them wasn't uncomfortable and he made her laugh even when he was teasing her. His sense of humour was subtle and easy to miss but Sakura discovered he was in fact quite charming when he wanted to be, even if he was a porn reading cheapskate. When she was finished her food she looked around his scarce apartment no book shelves a crate for a coffee table in front of the old lumpy couch, as far as she knew the only book in the place was the Icha Icha in his back pouch.

"So where is this library you were telling me about?" Eyebrow raised scanning the small one bedroom.

Kakashi stood up and tilted his head heading to the bedroom, silently inviting her. Sakura followed, she honestly never imagined herself ever having a reason to go into Kakashi's bedroom. It was small with a queen sized bed a bedside table, a dresser and a small desk overflowing with paper work and two pictures, the first was one she had as well, the other she guessed was of his own team when he had been a boy, she recognized Obito even without the corruption and devastating scars that had changed him. She recognized Minato, Naruto's father and Kakashi's own teacher and mentor, the last she guessed was Rin, Kakashi himself was masked and looked sullen and annoyed. He was adorable. Kakashi swung open his closet and instead of clothes it was filled to the brim with boxes, each one filled to the brim with books. He pulled the top box down and the second, the available standing room was filing up quickly. With four boxes out Sakura found herself sitting on his bed, content with the available selection available to choose from Kakashi sat down beside her.

"I had no idea you were such a collector, please tell me there's more then porn here." Sakura elbowed him in the ribs, he pretended pain.

"That box is mine." He pointed to the first box he had put down. "The rest was my father's collection. I inherited it after his death but they've been in storage, I haven't actually taken a good look at any of them yet." She looked at the boxes on the floor and the at least ten remaining boxes still in his closet eyes wide.

"They survived Pain's attack?" Sakura was amazed and opened the first box in front of her, a puff of dust greeted her and she pulled out the first book.

"Most didn't actually, there used to be three times as many boxes, this is what I was able to salvage." Kakashi pulled out the next book from the opened box slowly wiping dust off of the covered with his gloved hand. "I remember growing up we had two rooms and the living room covered wall to wall in bookshelves. He was always trying to get me to read, but I was young and wanted to train, or play outside, ninja's don't need to read, logic of a six year old I guess, after he died…It wasn't until master Jiraya gave me my first Icha Icha volume that I found out how much I loved reading." Kakashi looked at the book, a tactician's guide written by a long dead Nara. He glanced over at Sakura who seemed more interested in looking at him then the books, he felt himself blush under his mask realizing how much he had shared about himself, and his past. After the war it was hard to hide what had happened to his childhood team, it had been announced across the Shinobi alliance. His father and early childhood was still a part of him that he kept close and guarded. He wasn't sure why he had shared it with Sakura, except that these were his father's books, and she was here. It hadn't felt awkward to tell her, just stating facts.

Sakura was surprised to see how red his ears went, was he blushing? She looked away and examined the book she had pulled out. It was a book outlining the history of the Hatake clan, Sakura's eyes widened, that there would have been an entire book written about his clan, that Hatake was a clan name at all, Kakashi was the only one she knew of. She wondered if something tragic had befallen them, like the Uchiha. She flipped a couple of pages and stopped at a picture of a white wolf, the clan animal it would seem. She flipped further and something fluttered to the floor. Sakura bent to pick it up and gasped. Kakashi looked over her shoulder to see what had caused the reaction. It was a picture of a man with a long grey white pony tail with a smiling little boy, who couldn't be much older than two, on his shoulders, and a woman with dark brown hair and kind hazel eyes looking up at both of them. Kakashi took the picture from Sakura, delicately tracing the woman, then the man.

"That's my mother." He said it so quietly that Sakura wasn't sure he said it at all. "She got sick when I was three, she died, I don't remember her."

"She was beautiful, Kakashi." She put a hand on his knee and squeezed, he dropped a hand from the picture and took Sakura's, holding it gently. "You were an adorable kid." She leaned her head on Kakashi's shoulder.

He put the picture down almost reverently on his desk; he would find a frame for it in the morning. He was about to put the book he was examining away when another picture fluttered from its page. It was older then the last, this time only Kakashi's parents his mother in the later stages of pregnancy with a large protruding belly and a very proud looking Sakumo. Kakashi's furrowed his brow, handing the picture to Sakura this time before pulling out another book. He flipped through the pages, and sure enough another picture fluttered out. This time one of a newborn Kakashi cradled in the arms of his mother, he pulled out the next book and there was another picture, again of Kakashi in his infancy. Each book in the box held a picture of Kakashi and his family at various stages of his early life. He opened the next box of books, and started the process over again, and like the first box, each book in the second held a picture. It was almost three in the morning when Sakura and Kakashi finished going through the boxes that had been taken down. There were ten more to go through. His bed and floor was littered with books and Sakura was stretched out holding the growing collection of pictures in her hands sleeping. Kakashi stretched out beside her, examining random pictures until her sleeping face caught his attention. She had stayed with him, she had been so quiet but she had helped ground him had only squeezed a hand or a shoulder if she noticed he was upset, which was a hard feat considering how well he hid his emotions. Kakashi realized that his former student knew him far better than he thought. He was glad he hadn't gone through this discovery alone. He tucked a pink lock behind her ear, silently thanking her before he let sleep take him.

When Kakashi woke the following morning Sakura was gone, the books were still a mess on the floor, the pictures were in a neat stack on his bedside table. He frowned wishing she was still there, when the front door opened, he sensed her chakra before she called out, Sakura hadn't left for long it seemed and he grinned.

"Kakashi, look what I got!" She held out two bags, one had breakfast in it by the smell of things, the other was handed to him while Sakura took a seat on the couch and started eating. There was a handful a simple wooden frames and two large empty photo albums. "Hopefully that should be enough for all the pictures we'll find." She took a bite, before handing Kakashi his own breakfast. "I put an order in at the furniture place, four bookshelves will be delivered this weekend so you can properly display your library."

"You didn't have to do this, Sakura. You don't need to help me with this."

"I know, I wanted to. I was complaining about being bored so this should keep us both busy for our little vacation. Besides you're one of the most unorganized people I know, you need me here." She gave him a wink and he grinned back at her, the smile crinkling his eyes.

"Thank you." He said seriously, sincerely.

The first week of forced vacation flew by, Sakura spent every waking moment at Kakashi's invading his space, she had gone home only to pack an overnight bag and some toiletries. Kakashi found himself not minding, he liked her there, he liked how she could chat and fill the silence when he felt too overwhelmed with emotion at seeing the snap shots into his once very happy family, she knew when to stop and let silence reign, she knew when a comforting touch was what he needed, or she would make an excuse to leave for a few hours when she knew he needed to be alone. It was nice knowing she would come back, and she always did. When the bookshelves arrived they were boxed and they were left to build them. They had to rebuild the first one twice before they got it right and laughed after berating each other. The next three were assembled easily. Sakura set herself up on the couch with the photo albums trying her best to organize them chronologically, based on the various stages of growth little Kakashi was at. Kakashi put his father's books on the shelves, sorting by subject. He added his own small collection to the shelves last. When he finished he stood in the middle of his apartment inspecting his work. Sakura added the albums to the top most shelf beside the first family picture they had uncovered and stood beside him. She looked up at him and she was startled to see his dark grey eyes shining, under his mask his jaw clenched and unclenched. She put her arms around his waist and hugged him, he put his arms around her, resting a cheek on the top of her head, his entire body relaxing around her.

"After I found my father, I never thought I would ever find a place that felt like home again." He looked down at her, realizing that it hadn't just been the bookshelves, pictures, and books that had made his cold little apartment feel like a home. Her small hands rubbed up and down his back and he dropped his forehead to hers closing his eyes.

Sakura had learned so much about her former Sensei in the week they had off, he had trusted her enough to show his vulnerability to her. Her heart was so full for him, she wished a hug was enough to wipe away all the tragedy he had experienced in his life. At the same time she was struck at his resilience, and his inability to give up. She knew this about him from a young age, she just never knew how deep his strength ran. She got up on her toes and kissed his masked cheek he turned his head towards her his eyes locking with hers and she very slowly leaned forward to his masked lips.

"Wait, Sakura." Kakashi whispered harshly, pulling away.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what I was thinking. There was a connection, and…" She took a step back shaking her head looking away from his surprised expression. She cursed herself for having read deeper into the connection they shared, she was a friend, a former student even. He wasn't interested like that. She blushed deeply out of embarrassment. "Thank you for letting me share this with you. I should probably get home." She hurried to gather the things she had brought so she could leave.

Kakashi wasn't sure what had just happened, but he knew somehow he had messed up, he never was good with women. He scratched the back of his head while she hurried around the apartment gathering her things.

"Sakura, you don't have to go." He stopped her hands as they zipped up her bag. He didn't want her to go, he liked her here. "You misunderstood." He held her hand and brought it up to his face guiding her fingers to his mask hooking her fingers under his and pulling his mask down together. "I didn't want to kiss you with the mask on, that's all."

Their lips met, Sakura wrapped her arms around his neck, she felt silly but that soon melted away as the kiss grew, more heated. His hands were cupping her face, fingers running through her hair, his tongue brushed against hers, gently asking and she opened to him before being overcome by all the burning unspoken words that lived inside of him, the loudest one being stay.

When the vacation ended Tsunade noted a visible change in the two biggest workoholics in Konoha. They took more breaks, Sakura seemed to make time for her friends more as did Kakashi. She smirked to herself when she looked out her window one evening and caught Sakura hugging Kakashi after her shift followed by her taking his hand. She should give them time off more often she decided.


End file.
